Defense Matrix – Removing Cheaters from Overwatch 2

Defense Matrix Activated! Season 12 is just around the corner, launching tomorrow on August 20, and we have exciting news in our efforts to stop disruptive and harmful play in Overwatch 2. Defense Matrix is our initiative that works to make Overwatch 2 a fun, safe, and fair competitive Hero Shooter that is inclusive for everyone. So let’s jump into what’s been happening and what we have in store coming in Season 12 and beyond.

Cheating is an on-going problem in every skill-based game, and Overwatch 2 is no exception.  Cheating is a premeditative behavior where a player deliberately intends to ruin the experience for others, and is not tolerated in our community. Cheats like aimbots and wallhacks wreck the experience for all players. Our team has been hard at work to stop the hacks and mods that enable cheating, plus remove cheaters and those who take advantage of cheaters. Today, we’re pleased to announce we have banned over 500,000 accounts that have been found to be cheating. We have also suspended or banned over 40,000 accounts that intentionally group up with cheating accounts as well.

But our work doesn’t end with just identifying and removing cheaters. It’s important to also take out hacks that enable cheats altogether. We’re hard at work on new anti-cheat technologies and looking forward to stopping cheats in their tracks. As usual, we don’t like to reveal details of what we are doing to make this happen. However, we hope that by showing the efforts to remove a half-a-million cheaters from the game shows, we’ve made great strides to stop cheaters in their tracks and will always continue to do so.

In Season 11, we launched full preventive measures to detect anyone on console that was using an unapproved peripheral to enable mouse and keyboard inputs into console pools. While this led to banning thousands of the worst offenders who maliciously used these devices to climb competitive ranks in Season 10, players who attempt to use an unapproved peripheral will now